Stone Park Cafe

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Stone Park Cafe

Finally tried Stone Park Cafe last evening.The biggest pleasure of our meal was the wine:a 2002 Priorat "Les Terrasses" by Álvaro Palacios.This is the latest version of a very affordable, lush Spanish wine which, year after year, gets top ratings in wine publications. While the 2002 is not widely available yet, the 2001 retailed for $29.95. At $42, Stone Park has very fairly marked this bottle up and it is a perfect accompaniment to many of their dishes.We had the grilled octopus, which, while done to almost-perfect tenderness after being marinated in rich olive oil, was meager (two pieces of octopus) for the price ($11). I had the grilled fish (Mahi) sandwich, done "island style" with a chipotle mayonnaise and avocado, served with a large crock of plantain chips. I couldn't imagine a more generous meal for $12. My wife had the grouper, which was served with a mushroom tartlet. The tartlet was savory and tasty, but the grouper basically was tasteless. Dessert: an apple-peach crumble with vanilla ice cream. It was a mysterious color of purple, which was due to the (unadvertised) addition of fresh berries. Service was cordial and sound level acceptable, even with a cranky baby at a nearby table (been there, done that).

Maybe not Al Di La or Applewood, but accessible (have you ever had the experience of being told the wait was 45 minutes or more at Al Di La and that there were no seats at Al Di La Vino??), reasonable. Avoid the grouper and order the Priorat.